'He's to watch out for' - Rohit Sharma's 2011 tweet resurfaces after Suryakumar Yadav's splendid century

Indian batter Suryakumar Yadav has rose through the ranks and has emerged as one of India’s best batters in the shortest format of the game. He scored a splendid hundred in the third T20I against England in Trent Bridge, Nottingham, on July 10, Sunday, after India were in total disarray, and kept the team’s hopes alive in the game.

With Yadav scoring his maiden T20I ton, India skipper Rohit Sharma’s social media post from ten years ago has come to light. Rohit had posted that there were “exciting” cricketers coming up and Yadav was the one to watch out for in the future. This suggests Rohit was among the firsts to identify Yadav’s  credentials, and he is currently making a strong case to be in the T20 World Cup squad for the second time in a row.

“Just got done with BCCI awards here in Chennai..some exciting cricketers coming up..Suryakumar yadav from Mumbai to watch out for in future!” Rohit wrote on Twitter on December 10, 2011.

Suryakumar Yadav’s valiant knock goes in vain

Meanwhile, the third T20I was essentially a dead rubber as India had already won the first two games, and hence the team tested its bench strength for the game. England, on the other hand, were keen to open the account under their new captain, Jos Buttler, and go into the ODI series on a good note. 

England batted first and put up a strong batting display thanks to Dawid Malan and Liam Livingstone, who scored 77 off 39 balls and 42 off 29 balls respectively. England finished with a huge total of 215 for the loss of seven wickets. It was a bad day in the office for Indian bowlers, barring the young leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi, who finished with figures of two wickets for 30 runs in four overs.

India’s chase looked virtually over before it began as India lost their top three in no time. As Rohit, Rishabh Pant and Virat Kohli were dismissed for 11, 1 and 11 respectively, the chase seemed improbable. But then came Yadav with a magnificent 117 off 55 balls, and also built a partnership of 119 runs with Shreyas Iyer to keep the Indian hopes alive. 

Yadav also became only the fifth Indian to score a T20I hundred. But it was not enough for the Men in Blue on the day as they fell short by 17 runs, and Buttler’s men avoided a whitewash. The two teams will next meet for a three-match ODI series, starting on Tuesday (July 12).